Book Review
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Author: Lesley Nneka Arimah
ISBN: 0735211027 (ISBN13: 9780735211025)
Original title: What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky.
Genre: Prose
Sub genre: Short stories, magical realism
Literally awards: Locus Award, New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, Kirkus Prize, Goodreads Choice Award, Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize, Aspen Words
Book Reviewer: Shima Lucy Awashima
Unpretentious, fascinating and empathetic are the words that ran through my mind as I savaged through the pages of this book. What it means when a man falls from the sky consists of twelve (12) poignant short stories. Each story follows the life of a Nigerian woman and her unique ways of dealing with common problems in a misogynistic and racist society.
Arimah alternates the stories between Nigeria and the United States. Asides magical realism, she deploys science fiction, dystopia and mythology in giving readers fragments of the struggles of each character in her collection.
In the first story, The future looks good, Ezinma who fumbles with the key against the lock figuratively doesn’t see the pathetic reason behind her parents’ first meeting. And literally, she fails to see the trigger pulled at her from behind by Yellow Edwin, her sister Bibi’s ex-boyfriend who was blinded by rage. The story depicts the unwithering love of a sister and the hardheartedness of self-conceited men in the Nigerian society.
In War Stories, Okechukwu, a twelve-year-old is traumatised by the civil war stories narrated to her by her father whom she had enjoyed playing chess with since his friend’s suicide. The stories are meant to educate and discipline her. Okechukwu’s mother is saddled with the duty to paint cheerful mental pictures in her mind before her nocturnal rests.
Wild tells the story of Ada, an African-American whose obnoxious tendencies necessitates her visit to her aunt in Nigeria, she soon discovers that her cousin does not only behave far worse but is also spiteful to her for no reason. The tension cumulates and finally escalates when Ada is left stranded at a party at night by her cousin. The two girls find an uneasy common ground after this event.
The story Light is told through the eyes of Enebeli, a doting father who protects and empowers his eleven-year-old daughter till she leaves to stay with her mother in America. Enebeli is forced to watch through Skype as the ember, the natural light in his daughter dims with the expectations of the society.
Second Chances is a melancholic tale of Ike whose mother, dead for eight years, comes back to life for a day by stepping into a family photograph. She, Ike, is given a second chance to free herself from the guilt, anger and pain the death of her mother left her with. But will she take it?
Windfall is a disturbing story set in America, of a mother who constantly exposes herself and her fifteen-year-old daughter to harm willfully in order to file lawsuits and claim compensation not sparing her even when she is pregnant.
Who Will Greet You at Home is rather fantastical. Arimah sets it in a sort of alternate universe where mothers make their children out of raw materials such as mud, glass even hair instead of conceiving them as we are accustomed to, then their mothers sing life into them and for those without mothers, mama is ready to offer her help in exchange for their emotions, such as joy and empathy. Ogechi, made of Mud’s desire to make a baby above her means, nearly leads her to a disastrous end. This story comments on class segregation and inequality in our society.
Buchi’s Girls, is set in Nigeria, it brings to limelight the virus that is wealth inequality and the domineering nature of the rich. Widowed after her husband dies in an avoidable car crash. She and her two daughters are forced to move in with her sister who is married to a wealthy man. With her two daughters out of school, oppressed by her sister’s husband and the passive nature of her sister, Buchi is forced to do what no mother should have to do. Destitutes often endure unspeakable hardship in the hands of people who have unheaved themselves of the burden of empathy. Arimah aptly portrays the effects of social inequality and abuse, in this story.
The science fiction What It Means When a Man Who Falls From the Sky Imagines a Future is temporally set in the late 2030s precisely, wherein Biafra had gained independence and had formed a Biafran-Britannia alliance.
Furcal’s Formula, a novel discovery in mathematics endows certain persons with abilities to calculate and subtract people’s grief, Nneoma had this ability but couldn’t cure her father of his grief. It is soon discovered that the formula contains unapparent errors which could cause more harm than good.
Glory is immersed in the Igbo culture. Glorybetogod Ngozi believed she was born with bad luck as even her grandfather had told her parents that “her chi is not well”. But then she meets Thomas, another Nigerian studying in minneapolis. He makes her re-envision her future and rids her of her previous suicidal thoughts. Like his name, he makes her doubt her beliefs.
What Is a Volcano? is a question Arimah answers with a parable. Yes, she defines a volcano with the aid of this tale that is heavy with enchanting metaphors which could make it a bit difficult to process for a novice reader. A feud between the god of Ants and the goddess of rivers starts off as something minor but escalates as the goddess is forever separated from her child courtesy of the ant god. So when the child cries, her body hears and her breasts weep—that, Arimah tells us, is what a volcano is. Underestimating those we feel are beneath us is never a good forte is the story’s moral.
In the last story Redemption Arimah deploys a nameless female character to tell the story of not just Mayowa but of many brown, brave and confident women (girls) who are victims of circumstance, stripped of their bravery and sent to their mothers in disgrace by the rules of a dystopian society.
Each story has a subtle lesson as each character is strong and memorable. Arimah uses her personal experience as a Nigerian woman to lend her voice to women who strive to excel despite the hurdles set for them by society, all the while exposing issues that people only whisper about.
Girls with fire in their bellies will be forced to drink from a well of correction till the flames die out. But Lesley Nneka Arimah’s love for her bold African women stirred her tongue anyway.
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Shima lucy Awashima was born in Benue state, Nigeria and grew up there,she is studying law at Benue state University, she is a poet and an aspiring novelist. She is the vice chairperson Hill-Top Creative Arts Foundation Benue branch, when her nose is not stuck between pages of a book, her hands love to bake and her mouth loves to sing. She currently lives in Makurdi.
